Love is A Promise
by Hello-again931
Summary: Lily Evans is a studious prefect, adored by everyone, including greasy ex best friend Severus. James Potter is a handsome prankster, known to hex people when their backs are turned. How exactly did they get together? Chaps named for Beatles songs.
1. A Beginning

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Harry Potter or any of these characters, except for Siobhan, J.K. Rowling does and I'm extremely jealous. Mary is actually someone in the book, but I changed her full name because just Mary is so pedestrian, don't you think?

**A/N: **I always wanted to write one of these Lily/James things and they are amazingly fun. I highly recommend it. Just so you know, I'm going to put this chapter up first, just to see how it goes. It's going to be a long time until Chapter 2 comes up.

**The rhythmic click** **of the clock's pendulum woke me from my trance**. There was only ten minutes left, and I was thinking of lunch? My last question, the one I skipped, was '_Give five signs that identify the werewolf'_. Didn't I go over that in my notes before breakfast this morning? Why couldn't I remember? I was usually good at these things. The snout was different wasn't it? It was shaped unusually. I quickly dipped my quill in my blue ink and wrote it down. I hoped they didn't want anything specific, or I was toast. Er – what's the next one? The tail? It was bigger wasn't it, or more puffy? Oh, honestly, why would you need to identify a werewolf? If a bloke's growing access hair all over his body and growling, you run! You don't need to identify him.

"Five more minutes!" Professor Flitwick called out from the front of the room. I was in trouble. Okay, how about the eyes? The pupils are different, I think. I wrote that one down along with the snout and tail. What else? C'mon Lily, just make some rubbish up! I scrawled out something about the paws and ears. With a sigh of relief, I threw down my quill and leaned back in my chair. Finally, OWLs were done!

Professor Flitwick announced the test over, then summoned the papers. The parchment zoomed towards him and knocked him over on his back. A few people laughed, most of them Slytherins. I went to go help him, but several other students had already got there, and placed him safely on his feet. "Thank you, thank you," he said, steadying himself. "Very well, everybody, you are free to go!"

There was a mad rush out of the Great Hall, but I stayed behind at the door, waiting for my friend, Wilhelmina. She was at the back of the room, so I expected her to take a long time. Suddenly, she appeared beside me.

"Merlin's pants, Will! You scared me!" I said, my hand on my heart in an attempt to slow it. "Have you learned to Apparate or something?"

"Lily, you know you can't Apparate of Disapparate on the Hogwarts grounds," Will scolded. "And no, it's not my fault you are unobservant. C'mon, we have to meet Siobhan outside."

"Isn't Mary coming?"

"Nah, Flitwick wanted to see her. She just told me."

I followed her to the grounds where we waited at the front door. Will took out a book and began going over the DADA test with me, but I soon became distracted. I saw Potter with his friends by the lake. He was showing off for some giggling Ravenclaw girls, catching a Snitch and messing up his hair every once in a while. I wished he would put that stupid thing away. Black was sitting lazily against a tree and looked handsome and haughty as always. Peter was watching Potter in amazement. Reamus was looking rather ill and had his nose in a book. He was the only agreeable Marauder and a prefect; we got along quite well.

Potter put away his snitch and began watching something with enthusiasm. Black, noticing his gaze, joined him. They were both perfectly still, like lions hiding in the shadows waiting for an unsuspecting zebra. I knew those looks, and I knew who the prey was.

Sev, who was previously studying in a clump if bushes, put his papers in his bag and started making his way to the doors. Potter and Black stood up, too. They took their wands out of their pockets.

"All right, Snivellus?" Potter called. Severus, rightly anticipating a prank or a possible curse, hastily dropped his bag and dug his hand in his robes for his wand. He did this quickly, but not quickly enough. His wand was halfway up when James shouted, "_Expelliarmus_!" His wand flew out of his hand and fell with a soft _thump_ ten feet behind him. Students who were watching laughed. Black let out a bark of laughter.

"_Impedimenta_!" Black shouted and Sev, who was searching for his wand. Severus fell loudly on the dirt. I was furious. How dare they? What did Sev do to them? I stood up, my wand out, ready to curse them, but Will held me back.

"Don't Lily," she commanded, disarming me with a smooth wave of her wand. She placed my wand safely in her pocket. "You don't want to get in the middle of that. You could get in trouble or worse, hurt."

More students turned to watch, most entertained. They saw the Marauder's cruelty, and thought it was _funny_.

Sev was panting on the ground and struggling to get up. More people laughed. I noticed that the crowd of bystanders grew bigger. Reamus and Peter left their spot by the tree to get a closer look. I wondered heatedly how Reamus could've ever been friends with these – people. They were arrogant toerags, the whole lot of them.

"How'd the exam go, Snivelly?" Potter asked, his wand pointed at him. They were closer to the lake's edge now.

"I was watching him," Black answered with a bark of laughter, "his nose was touching the parchment. There'll be great grease marks all over it; they won't be able to read a word." Several people joined him in laughter, including Potter and Pettigrew.

Severus was still struggling on the ground. He was trying to get up, but the hex was still holding him. Concern washed over me, temporarily replacing the rage at Potter. "You – you wait! You – wait!" he panted.

"Wait for what?" said Black haughtily. "What're you going to do, Snivelly, wipe your nose on us?"

Severus muttered a string of curse words and hexes. Those words surprised me; he never used that kind of language when I was around.

"Wash your dirty mouth, Snivellus," Potter said with a grin. "Here, _Scourify_!" Pink bubbles appeared in Sev's mouth. They filled his mouth, and he began choking. That was enough.

I escaped Will's hold and grabbed my wand with little difficulty. "Wait, Lily, stop!" she called out from the stone steps. I didn't care. These monsters were going to pay. Severus didn't do anything to them; they just liked seeing him in pain. I wanted to see them in pain, see how they like it…

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

Everyone turned to face me. Potter smiled a mature, pleasant smile. I didn't let that fool me. That smile was as phony as a boggart's form. A wolf in sheep's clothing, I thought grimly, looking at that kind smile.

"All right, Evans?" Potter asked. His tone changed to match his smile. I loathed him and that stupid countenance. I put my wand in my pocket and crossed my arms.

"Leave him alone," I ordered. I shot him a look that I could only describe as 'pure venom'. "What has he done to you?"

"Well," he began, pretending to think, "it's more the fact he exists, if you know what I mean…" His excuse for embarrassing and tormenting Severus, nearly choking him was _because he exists_? If I didn't hate him before, I hated him now. He was horrible and proud and utterly revolting! Girls wooed over this bloke?

The surrounding students chuckled, as did Potter, Black, and Pettigrew. Reamus's face was stiff, and he was looking at me in worry. He mouthed an apology for his friends, but I didn't take it. They weren't sorry, they weren't ever sorry for their stupid pranks.

"You think you're funny, Potter," I said. "You're not. You are just an arrogant, bullying toerag. Leave him alone." Potter lost his smirk for a moment, and then he grinned more than ever. I wanted to hex him, but I didn't. I did not want to be like them. I bawled my fists until my knuckles turned white.

"I will if you go out with me, Evans. Go out with me, and I'll never lay a wand on little Snivelly again." Really, this is what it had to come to? How many times had I rejected him? And yet, he still came back, prouder than ever. Behind him, I saw Sev's curse was wearing off, and he was reaching for his wand. I didn't say anything; I just continued to glare at Potter.

"I wouldn't go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid," I said, refusing as always. Why couldn't he just give up? I was never going to accept, why couldn't that just get through his thick skull?

"Oh, bad luck Prongs. Looks like you have some competition now," Black said, hiding a chuckle. His face went cold as he turned to look at Sev.

Severus grabbed his wand just as Black was opening his mouth to stop him. A curse shot out from Sev's wand, directed at Potter. His face splattered with blood from large, deep gash on his cheek. With another flash, Severus was upside down, his robes over his head and his grey underpants out for everyone to see. I nearly smiled, but caught hold of myself.

"Let him down, Potter!" I turned away from Sev, stifling a giggle. It was funny, but horribly cruel and evil and immature. Don't laugh, Lily, I urged internally. You'd be just as bad as them.

"Whatever you say," he said with a snicker. He flicked his wand and Severus fell in a crumpled heap on the ground. Straightening his robes, he jumped up and was about to perform a spell. Black yelled, "_Petrificus Totalus_!" and Severus fell over again, stiff as a board.

"Why can't you just LEAVE HIM ALONE!" I screamed. I held my wand out, ready to curse at any given moment. Potter and Black eyed my wand warily and then shared a look. I felt Will's presence behind me.

"Ah, don't make me hex you, Evans," Potter said sincerely.

"Take the curse off him then!" I ordered. He sighed and muttered the counter-curse. Severus stood up and brushed off his robes. I looked at him, but his expression showed no sign of gratitude, only – hostility.

"There you go," said Potter. "You're lucky Evans was here, Snivellus –"

"I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!"

I blinked. My body turned cold as he glared at me in disgust. Did he – did he just call me a Mudblood? I opened my mouth to speak, to ask for some sort of an explanation, but no sound came out. I swallowed loudly. Finally, words came from my lips, just as hostile and wounding as his.

"Fine, I won't bother you in the future. And I'd wash your pants if I were you, _Snivellus_," I said, cool as a cucumber, as thoughmy best friend didn't insult me with the most cruel and insensitive word in wizardry, as though he meant nothing to me. I felt a small tear roll down my cheek, betraying my tough demeanor. Will put her hand on my shoulder in comfort.

"Apologize to Evans!" Potter yelled. His wand was pointed against his throat.

"I don't want you to make him apologize!" I said, quickly wiping my face. "You are as bad as he is!" No, he wasn't. Sure, he hexed everyone and was conceited, but he never called me names. He would never do that, or anyone for that matter.

"What? I'd NEVER call you a – you-know-what!" Potter defended, surprised.

"Messing up your hair because you think it looks cool to look like you've just got off a broomstick, showing off with that stupid Snitch, walking down the corridors and hexing anyone who annoys you because you can – I'm surprised your broomstick can get off the ground with that fat head on it. You make me SICK!"

I turned and stormed off Will, and the very confused Siobhan at my side. I heard Potter call my name, but I ignored it. I didn't want to see him. He was a conceited, proud, arrogant, bullying toerag that I will never associate with again.

**The look on** **Lily's face said everything**. Her beautiful green eyes widened and she struggled to register his hurtful words. Her face went completely pale, bleached the second he said that word. Pain crossed her face. Deep pain. It was the face girls gave me when I broke up with them (or at least, tell them I just want to be friends. Lily's the only girl for me.), only a hundred times worse. Her mouth opened and closed, then opened again. When she did speak it wasn't what I expected.

"Fine, I won't bother you in the future. And I'd wash your pants if I were you, _Snivellus_." I felt like kissing her – well, more than usual. This is why I liked Lily Evans. She was – for the lack of a better word – spunky. She wasn't like the others.

Then I looked at her face. The hurt was still there. The angry words were meant, but they were also a show. A tear glistened on her cheek. He made her _cry_. Lily was in pain, and this bloke, Snivellus, did that to her. The greasy haired son of a bitch had it all, he had _her_, and he just gave it all away with one foul word.

"Apologize to Evans!" I bellowed, roughly pointing my wand against his throat. All the curses I knew spun around in my mind. He never deserved Lily, and he took her for granted.

"Hey, I don't want you to make him apologize! You're as bad as he is!" Ah, she looked so gorgeous when she was angry. Wait, what did she say? How was I bad?

"What? I'd NEVER call you a – you-know-what!" Did she really think that? I would never, ever, even at wand point, call her or any other muggle-borns – that name. It was evil and immorally wrong.

"Messing up your hair because you think it looks cool to look like you've just got off a broomstick, showing off with that stupid Snitch, walking down the corridors and hexing anyone who annoys you because you can – I'm surprised your broomstick can get off the ground with that fat head on it. You make me SICK!" That surprised me. Yeah, I showed off, but I didn't think she noticed it. I didn't even think she looked at me, let alone known my habits. She actually paid attention to me, and that was good wasn't it, even if she insulted me?

She was leaving with her friends. She didn't even wait for my response, she just left. She must've been really upset. "Hey, EVANS!" I yelled, hoping she would turn around so I could see the expression on her face. She didn't.

**Many tears fell ****that night**. Many vows were made, including never speaking to Potter or Sev – Snivellus. Siobhan and Will convinced me to go out to the common room, for I had locked myself in our dormitory. They thought it would be good for me to converse. I would've refused, but they stole my wand. I was powerless.

At nine o'clock, the common room was packed full of Gryffindors that had nowhere to go and nothing to do. There was Gobstones, Exploding Snap, studying, and of course, the Marauders. They were up to something stupid, per usual. Their fan club (mostly older girls) was circled around them so tightly I couldn't see their new scheme, so I just hoped Reamus would stop them from doing something too dangerous.

"What do you think they're doing this time?" Siobhan asked, putting down her textbook and tucking her sandy hair behind her ear. We were helping her study for Muggle Studies, and since I was Muggle-born, she thought I was the best studying tool. As full witches, Will and Mary (actually, she was only half) were no help at all.

"Something stupid and childish, no doubt," answered Will. "Remember when they shrank all the Slytherin's quills? What did they ever do to them?" Immediately, Will noticed her mistake and began to apologize.

"It's fine, Will, really. Everything reminds me of him, so what am I going to do? Lock myself in a closet until I forget about him?"

Will and Siobhan exchanged glances. "Actually, Lily, you were planning on doing that. Good thing we have this," Siobhan said, waving my wand around with a smile.

"Hey, be careful with that! Don't just wave it around, willy-nilly! You might hurt it," I exclaimed protectively, trying to snatch it away, yet again. Siobhan laughed, but put it back in her pocket.

"'Hurt it'?" she repeated, a hint of her Irish accent just coming through. "These things are nearly indestructible, they're meant to be waved around a bit. It won't just break into pieces."

"Yeah," Will agreed. "I once dropped my wand from a third story balcony. It was fine, well after a good polish."

Siobhan and I gave her curious looks. "Would you care to repeat that, please?"

Will grinned wickedly. "It's nothing, really. It was summer, and I was just practicing some spells in the attic with my brother, because mum wouldn't let us downstairs –"

"Wait, what?" I interrupted. "I thought we weren't allowed to use magic outside of school."

"We aren't, Lily," answered Siobhan. "It's just the Ministry can't tell whose making the magic, they just know where it's coming from. It's a bit unfair to you, as a Muggle-born, but not enough people know to complain. Anyway, go on Willy."

"As I said, I was practicing some disarming spells with my little brother, and the balcony door behind him was open. He's a clumsy little bugger, so of course, when my wand flew out of my hand, he fell over and didn't catch it, and it flew out the door to the street."

"Did you go get it?" I asked.

"I tried to, but it landed on one of those Muggle contraptions, the ones that are like big broomsticks. What're they called? – notorsicles, I think."

"I believe it's 'motor vehicles', but nice attempt, Will. What did you do, then?"

"Well, my pig-nosed brother told my mum and she summoned it back. I had to wash the dishes with no magic for the rest of the summer."

"That's not that bad," Mary said, coming out of the portrait hole and joining us. "I once climbed out onto the roof of my dad's house to lick an icicle. I was grounded for two weeks, and had to spend it cleaning the house until it was spotless."

We laughed and Mary set her bags down and got comfortable in an armchair by the fire. She pulled out parchment and quill and started writing.

"I thought you didn't know your dad," Siobhan said. Will nudged her lightly and I sent her a warning look. Mary's dad was a Muggle, and didn't like magic. He left her mother when Mary was a baby because she told him she was a witch.

"Oh, I don't, not really. My mum thought it would be good for me to meet him, you know, have a father figure of some sort. That was before Hogwarts, so mum just convinced him I was a squib. I think he thought I was stupid, because of the whole icicle incident. He didn't like me very much, but then again, he had a whole bunch of suburban Muggle kids of his own. I think he was comparing me to them. And the whole gothic look I was sporting didn't really help the situation either." Mary mostly wore dark clothes. Her black hair was dead straight and looked to be cut perfectly with a ruler, with a couple colorful streaks. Unlike most Goths, she put on no make-up and wore thick square glasses. To most people, she looked a bit secluded and creepy, but she was actually really outgoing and smart once you got to know her.

"Where were you anyway?" I asked, changing the subject. Mary smiled and shook her head.

"It was nothing; just Flitwick thought that my Charms exam was dreadfully close to _Narcissa Black's_." She said this with a disgusted tone in her voice. "Like I would cheat off her anyway, stupid Slytherin, she probably cheated off me. He made me drink Veritaserum, and that was a long process."

"Don't they have anti-cheating spells on the quills anyway? How could anyone cheat?" Will asked, peering over Siobhan's chair, studying her work. She muttered something and pointed at the parchment. Siobhan quickly crossed the word out.

"I know, but apparently –"

A knock on the common room door stopped her. It was a quiet knock, like a reminder. Mary began tapping her quill against the table conspicuously. "Wow! Aren't the Marauders loud tonight!" We all looked at her, eyebrows raised.

"What was that?" Will asked.

"Nothing. What?" she said a little too quickly.

'Amaryllis, what was that?" I repeated.

Mary looked at me guiltily. "It's Snape. When I got back from Flitwick's, he was sitting there. He wants to talk to you, really badly. He even said that he'd sleep in front of the portrait hole until you came out. He refused to move. I hoped he would just leave after a while."

"He's been sitting with the Fat Lady for the past ten minutes, and you didn't tell me?"

"I knew that seeing him would upset you, so I didn't tell. I'm really sorry, Lily. I just didn't want you to be in more pain than you already are."

"Well, I don't want him staying out there all night and scaring the first years in the morning. I'm going to go talk to him."

**A/N: **Mary's story about the icicle was really mine. I was looking out the window at my friend's house, and there it was. It was like, four feet! I couldn't resist! So I just opened the window, climbed out and then, my friend's mom conveniently walked by the other window and put a stop to it. I was grounded for weeks. Then they destroyed the icicle to prevent any more incidents.

**Question:** What is a toerag? It's mentioned quite a lot during the series, but it's never quite clear on what it actually means…

Anyway, feel free to review, that's what the button for.


	2. Don't Bother Me

**Disclaimer: **Is this really necessary every time? Ah, I'm already tired of this two chapters in… anyway, I don't own these characters, etc.

**I noticed Lily**** leaving from across the room**. It was odd, really, because she was such a stickler for rules, and it was way past nine. She loved them - rules I mean, not the time. And I always thought that she would obey them to the death, not that such a situation would occur. Where would she go anyway? All her close friends were in the common room. Well, except for Snivelly, but it was over between them. He was out of the picture and (hopefully) I would be snapped in.

Maybe she forgot something in the Great Hall, and just remembered it now. But that didn't seem like her either, she was always really organized. What was she up to? Wait! Her friends would know, I thought, looking at them whispering to each other. I moved a bit closer to them and pretended to be tying my shoe, trying not to look suspicious.

"Why'd you tell her?" hissed Siobhan to Mary, hitting her softly in the arm with a text book. Mary frowned, and her glasses began to fall down her nose.

"What was I supposed to do? He started knocking, and you know I'm a horrible liar!" Mary defended, hitting her back.

"Well, you could have – done something useful! Right now she's out there with her former best friend, the one we just got her to forget about! She was just starting to smile," said Wilhelmina, hitting them both and finally taking the book away. That was all I needed. Lily was out there, alone with Snivellus! I needed to know what was going on with them.

I glanced at Sirius, who was crowded by a large group of giggly girls, wanting to see some new pranks. I caught his gaze then pointed at the portrait hole, where Lily's shocking red hair was just visible before it disappeared in the corridor. We shared a look and he mouthed, "Cloak?" I nodded. Sometimes it was like he could read my mind.

I ran up the stairs three at a time and grabbed my cloak from my trunk at the foot of my four poster. Hoping that I wasn't missing anything important with Lily and Snivelly, I threw on the cloak and went downstairs as quickly as I could without anybody noticing. The portrait hole was still open, luckily, so I could slip out easily while lacking those, "Why did the door mysteriously open?" comments that were surprisingly common.

"I'm sorry!" I heard him blurt out. I slowly tip-toed away a couple feet away for the best view.

"Well, I'm not interested," she said stoutly, her arms firmly crossed across her chest. She went to turn away, but Snivellus grab her arm.

"Please! I'm sorry!"

"Save your breath." Lily shook him off and moved closer to me, without knowing it. She was still wearing her robes, he was wearing his pajamas. He must've planned to sleep here. Must've known that she was as stubborn as an ass. I smirked and began to chuckle softly.

Not softly enough. Lily looked in my direction with a puzzled look on her face. I stopped laughing and stepped back a bit. She looked so cute with her eyebrows furrowed, so intelligent. She shook her head a slightly and turned back to him.

"I only came out here because Mary told me you were threatening to sleep here." She eyed his bottle green and silver pajamas. He blushed slightly. "Guess she was telling the truth."

"I was. I would have done. I never meant to call you a Mudblood, Lils. It just –"

"Slipped out?" she finished. There was no pity in her voice. "It's too late. I've made excuses for you for years. None of my friends can understand why I even talk to you. You and your precious Death Eater friends –" she paused, perhaps waiting for a contradiction, "– you see! You don't even deny it. You don't even deny that what you're all aiming to be! You can't wait to join You-Know-Who, can you?"

His mouth twitched, like he wanted to say something, but wasn't able to.

"I can't pretend anymore. You've chosen your way, I've chosen mine. A Death Eater can't have a Muggle born friend; it's against everything they stand for, what _you_ stand for."

"No – listen, I didn't mean –"

"What? To call me a Mudblood? You call everyone of my birth that, why should I be any different?" She gave him one more opprobrious look and walked through the portrait hole. I went to follow her, but Snivelly stopped me.

He was just sitting on the ground – or more appropriate, collapsed on the ground. He was rocking back and forth, his head in his hands. He really cared for her, maybe even loved her. They had been best friends since they were little kids playing in the sand box, and it was all gone now. But he had his chance, didn't he? There was more than one person who loved Lily, and it was his turn now.

**"****So? What happened?"** **asked Will when I returned from the hall.**

"N – nothing. He just apologized and groveled on his knees. It was absolutely nothing," I answered firmly, with a smile on my lips but my eyes watering a bit. The three looked at me, their eyebrows raised. From the corner of my eye I noticed Potter coming out of his dormitory with his usual smug look on his face. Strange. Potter was almost never alone; he usually had one of the Marauders or the fan club with him.

"Ah, Lily?" said Siobhan, waving her hand in front of my face. "What really happened back there?"

"I told you, it was nothing," I repeated. "I just told him that since he was planning to be a Death Eater, continuing to be friends would be a horrible idea for both of us." I sat down and grabbed Siobhan's Muggle Studies textbook along with her notes.

"Lily, please talk to us," pleaded Will, sitting down. "You just lost your best friend of like, 6 years. You couldn't have just broken it off with him so easily. It's not good to keep your emotions bottled up. Plus, you just calmly said that he wanted help a crazy wizard in his attempt to kill the whole population of Muggle borns."

"Yeah," added Siobhan nodding, cheerfully as always. "You can cry if you want to, it's okay." Mary put my hand on my arm reassuringly.

I looked around the Common Room. It was nearly ten, so it had emptied quite a bit, but the Marauders and some of their fan club still remained, giggling in the corner. I didn't want to cry in front of them, especially Potter. I would never hear the end of it.

"No, I'm fine. Let's just not talk about it. We have work to do anyway." Mary sat down, eyeing her nails, while Siobhan shrugged and joined her on the armrest of her chair. We looked at Will, who yawned and turned away. "I'm going to bed. I'll see you in the morning."

I started skimming through Siobhan's notes, though it was pretty hard since all the available space on the parchment was covered in sickly pink hearts and other doodles. "Siobhan, look at this! You wrote that Muggles get electricity from plugging things into the wall."

"Yeah, so? Isn't that right?"

"Well, yes. But it's much, much more complicated than that. Don't you pay attention when Professor Burbage talks? This answer will probably get you D, a P if you're lucky. Here," I placed the quill in her hand and pointed at a page in her text book. "Copy all that down and try to memorize it."

"Well, then, now what?" Mary asked, resting her head on her arm. "Essentially, school is over, so we can stay up as late as we want, but there's nothing to do past nine but study and talk. Studying is pointless because the school year is over, and you said you didn't want to talk."

"I never said I didn't want to talk, I just didn't want to talk about _it_. We can talk all you want, about anything you want, just not _it_."

"Fine, okay. What else is there to talk about?" Mary asked. Today, her hair streaks were a bright, happy orange that matched her nails and contacts. I always wondered why she insisted on dressing so depressing and dark when she was such a happy person, but I never was brave enough to ask. I always assumed it was a personal kind of thing.

"Er – the weather was nice today. Don't you think?" I suggested. Had it really come to this? There had to be something more interesting to talk about.

"That's it, I'm going to bed. Once we start talking about the weather, I know it's time to leave." She got up and straightened her robes. "See you two upstairs."

"You know, I'm going up too. I'm done with studying. I don't really care if I fail my OWL," said Siobhan, shoving her books, quills, and ink bottle roughly into her bag. She threw it over her shoulder then rubbed her eyes. I got up with her. "Are you coming?"

"You know, I think I'm going to stay here for a while. I'm not that tired."

**As usual,** **the girls were flirty and giggly.** They were practically hanging off Sirius, who was the only one of us who actually liked them surround us nearly every night. Reamus hated the noise they made, especially when it was close to a full moon, and I only wanted Lily. Pete liked them too, but the girls didn't really like him back. Sirius was charming and attractive; girls loved everything about him, well, almost everything. They didn't like how he went through them like Kleenex.

I expected Evans to be pretty upset after the whole Snivellus thing, and at first she was. There were actual tears in her eyes, but after about four minutes she was smiling again. I thought Lily would be crying her eyes out, as emotional as she is, but then again, she's also proud, private person (try saying that three times fast). She wouldn't dare to shed any tears in a relatively crowded room, especially in front of me.

Soon she was alone. Her friends had gone upstairs and she was just sitting in a burgundy chintz chair by the fire, her favourite. Her eyes were closed and she sighed heavily.

"All right, Lils?" I said, joining her in the other chair. She opened her eyes slowly and gave me a look. Her green eyes shown like deep emeralds in the firelight. Deep, angry emeralds.

"What do you want?" she asked, looking at me suspiciously. She thought this was a prank.

"I dunno," I admitted. My plan was to go and say something to her. I didn't anticipate getting this far without her insulting me and walking away. "You looked kind of lonely and sad. I wanted to see what was wrong." From the corner of my eye, I saw Reamus give me a thumbs-up. Sirius was making kissing noises at me – no, he was actually kissing someone.

"It's nothing," said Lily, simply and firmly. She closed her eyes again. "Please, go away."

"Is it my fault?" I blurted. Bad idea. This could lead to yelling and accusations.

"No. Well, yes." She sat up and gave me her full attention. Her eyes shimmered. "Your violent attack on Severus resulted in his 'offensive term' which resulted in me realizing that he was a total sadistic prick and that the only real thing that kept our friendship going for such a long time was reminiscence."

It took me a minute to take all this in. What did reminiscence mean? I just nodded knowingly and said, "Wow. I'm really sorry."

She heaved a sigh. "Don't be," Lily said grimly. "At one point I was going to have to let him go, realize that he really wasn't that great. Better now than in ten wasted years."

We were silent for a moment. "You know he was the one who told me I was witch?" she said softly. "I was at the park with my sister and I was playing with a flower, making the petals move. That's when he told me. He just jumped out of a bush and blurted it out."

"Oh," I said, not knowing what to say. "How… nice."

"It's kind of creepy once you think about it." She thought for a minute and laughed, her eyes full of tears. "Petunia –my sister – hated him. She wanted to be a witch with me so badly. She was jealous. We fight all the time now. It's kind of bittersweet; being a witch is amazing, but as long as I am one, I'll never get along with her." A tear rolled down her cheek and into her hands. At that point, she must've remembered what she was doing: talking to self proclaimed nemesis James Potter about her family problems and her other grievances.

She went to get up. "Wait!" I stopped her. Hey, why not take advantage of the situation? It's not like I'm going to get another chance like this in a while. "Can I ask you a question?"

She eyed my warily. "It better not be what it usually is."

I chuckled. "It's not, I promise." She nodded. "Why won't you go out with me?"

"I won't go out with you because you're an immature, arrogant toeraggish git who walks around the school specifically looking for kids to prank and older guys to pick fights with. You walk around Hogwarts thinking that you own the place, like the whole world revolves around you. Plus, you act like you're the best Quidditch player in the universe, and even though I've never seen you play, I know it's complete bull shit. I might go out with you if you realized that and you stopped being you, but I wouldn't bet on it. Now, I have to go to bed," she said before grabbing her books and running upstairs. At least I finally knew she could stand to have a pleasant conversation with me – for a little while.

I grinned and joined the guys.

**A/N: **There you go, Chapter 2 done. I hope you liked it. :)

Just so you know, this will be the first and last heart-to-heart thing with Lily and James (it seems a bit early for one, doesn't it?), so you'd better be satisfied with just this for a long while.


	3. She's Coming Home

**Disclaimer: **Yet again, I don't own anything. It's all JKR's.

**Lily was so** **confusing, but at least she talked to me civilly for a minute there, something I always thought was impossible for her to do.** Did she like me (as a friend)? Did she at least stop hating me so much? I'd be fine with that, actually I'd just be fine with her not have to urge to yell or glare whenever I'm near. And the thing that was really bothering me: Would she actually go out with me if I stopped being so childish? I would do anything to be with her, even change who I am (though the end result of lying to her would probably be an horribly awkward situation worthy of a cheesy romantic comedy).

I had thought our relationship had actually got somewhere other than 'enemy', but apparently not. The only thing she had said to me within the next week was "Can you pass the salt?" Sirius had talked to her a couple days after our 'talk' and he said that she was regretful that she shared so much with me. That was horrible; I thought we had quite the nice chat, apart from the last part. I was just going to have to show her that I wasn't a childish idiot anymore.

"Hey," said Sirius, after we stepped out of the carriage. Reamus and Peter got an earlier one, because they couldn't stand waiting for us to pack up all of our things. To them we were disorganized, to us, we were simply too important for such boring things. Plus, it was a pain to try and track all of our lost stuff down. "Save me a seat. I have to go break up with Victoria. She's a crier, that one. It might take a long time." I nodded and headed off in the other direction in search of Moony and Wormtail.

"Where's Padfoot?" asked Reamus as I closed the door of the compartment. I sat beside Peter on the smooth maroon seat. They had picked our usual seat, the fifth from the very middle compartment, at the back of the train.

"He's breaking up with a girl. According to him, it's going to take a long time." They both nodded knowingly. Sirius breaking up with a girl wasn't exactly breaking news.

"Isabelle Winters?" suggested Peter.

"No, it's Bernadette Hart. Isn't it?"

"Neither. Victoria Compton. Isabelle was last week."

"Then when was Bernadette?"

"She's yesterday's news. She had to be, what? Three weeks ago, right?"

The door opened and Sirius walked in and sat down, a deep frown on his face. One of his cheeks was a deep scarlet. "What are we all talking about?"

"Your love history, actually. We were trying to remember the order," I explained. "How long ago was Bernadette?"

"Bernadette Hart? I have no idea. Was she that Ravenclaw brunette? The one with the bigger than average sized ears, to be polite?"

"No," Reamus objected. "The latest Ravenclaw brunette was Dorcas Meadowes, the seventh year. Big Ears was Ursula Duncan. She's the sixth year Hufflepuff. Remember that you didn't notice the ears until after you were broken up because that accident in Charms kept her hair from going up for the two weeks you were dating?"

"No, Quinn was the Ravenclaw blonde, the brunette was Samantha Ashton," added Wormtail.

Sirius sighed contentedly. "Ah, yes, that's right. Who was Freckle Face, again?"

"Hey!" I interrupted. "Can we please stop this? Let's change the subject please."

"Fine," Sirius said, crossing his arms and putting his legs up between me and Peter. "You know, she slapped me! Really, could she be more rude? I made it quite clear when we started going out that I wasn't looking for a relationship, just a couple days of snogging. Yet she's still shocked when I tell her it's over."

The door opened again, with Lily and her friend, Mary.

"What did you do to Victoria?" Mary demanded, glaring at Sirius with her bright yellow contacts that really creeped me out. Her hands with her matching nail polish were on her hips.

"I broke up with her," he said simply and charmingly. He flashed her a smile that would leave most girls breathless, but not Mary, or Lily for that matter.

"Did you know that her boyfriend of four years broke up with her for another girl two months ago, and you were her first boyfriend since she got over him? Then you dumped her after six God damn days!" Lily shifted her weight to the other leg. She looked uncomfortable and upset. I guess she didn't think yelling at Sirius would really do anything (which it wouldn't; I had tried to convince him to be nicer to girls for years, he still treated them like gum at the bottom of his designer shoes). Lily turned and found me staring at her. She glared at me.

"What can I say? She wasn't my type," he said simply.

"'Wasn't your type'?" she repeated fuming. She looked ready to hex him.

"And anyway, why is she the victim here? She slapped me, and it's going to bruise! My beautiful face is going to be black and blue for the next two weeks! Someone should be pitying me!"

"She is the victim because you only dated her for snogging and then left her the moment you got tired of her! She was heartbroken and weeping for the whole last term and only just stopped when you got her going again. You deserve a slap. And if you weren't one of my friends, more than your face would be bruised. C'mon Lily." They both left without another word, though Lily did look at him apologetically.

"Well then." Sirius clapped his hands. "So who was Freckle Face?"

**I really felt** **bad when Mary yelled at Sirius.** He didn't really deserve it; I mean, yes, he did break up with her, but he always broke up with girls. They should be aware that he's just using them for snogging, after all these years with him and after so many girls' hearts were broken. Victoria just picked the wrong guy to start up again with. I was going to have to apologize to him for her sometime before we left to go home.

"So what did you say to him again?" Will asked. Sirius had never gotten on her good side.

"I told him that if I wasn't his friend, more than his face would be hurt," Mary replied, her golden eyes shimmering with self contentment. Mary was funny sometimes; though she was shy and quiet, she was very protective of her friends and other people who couldn't defend themselves, and at the moment, Victoria was one of those people. She was still crying in the compartment three doors down, but she apparently perked up a bit after hearing about Mary's verbal abuse, and near physical abuse.

"I believe the actual term you used was 'bruised'," I corrected, grinning with Will. Her smile was slightly crooked, and with her short brown hair and freckles, it gave her a more boyish appearance. It suited her though; she was sportier than most guys at Hogwarts, and a talented Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

"Oh, shut up."

"Since we are talking about Sirius, I have something to tell you all," Siobhan started, unwrapping a chocolate frog. "Right after he broke up with Victoria, he was with me."

Our jaws dropped. "What?" we said in unison. We were friends with Siobhan long enough to know what that meant: snogging, without the whole relationship/dating part of it.

"It was nothing really, and it wasn't really planned. We snogged a bit before the train left the station, but we both agreed not start anything serious. I want to be free for the summer. There's a cute Muggle boy in me Gram's neighborhood that I want to try out. I'm sure Sirius wants to be free as well."

"Talk about flavor of the hour," said Mary.

"Talk about flavor of the minute," I said, laughing.

"Talk about slut!"cried Will. "You shoved your tongue down his throat for a good ten minutes then told him to bugger off?"

"No," she said, innocently batting her eyelashes. "The break up thing with mutual. Just as I started to tell him, he started telling me – anyway, we broke up with each other at the same time. And I'm not a slut; I just like the occasional snog with a guy I don't really know."

Will snorted. "Right, 'occasional'. Is that your way of saying every other day?" Siobhan stood up and raised her perfectly arched eyebrows, her makeuped eyes in angry slits.

"Can you two please stop?" I asked with a sigh. "This is going to be our last day all together for a while, and I want to remember it fondly. Now both of you hug and forget about it." When arguments and heated discussions began between them, it was always my job to stop them before it turned too serious. "What is everyone doing for the summer?"

"I'm doing absolutely nothing," answered Will, "except for baby-sitting my brother and all his friends. I get 5 galleons a day for it, so by the end of summer, I should be able to afford the new Cleansweep. I'll be completely broke afterwords, but I think it's worth it."

"I'm going to spend the whole summer at my Uncle Tony's house in Italy, because my mum wants to go on an African tour or something with her new boyfriend, Pablo." She made a face. "He's so creepy; I swear he's in the Mafia or something." Mary shuddered. "Uncle Tony, I mean. Pablo's okay, I guess, he's just like, four years older than me."

I laughed, ignoring the Pablo comment. It was common knowledge that her mum went through young boyfriends. "You probably think every Italian person's in the Mafia, Mare."

"Hey! You can very be too careful."

"I am going to me Gram's house in Ireland. There's this Muggle boy who's utterly smoldering that I'm going to charm into falling in love with me." She sighed. "It's going to be fun."

Will, Mary, and I exchanged glances but said nothing. Sometimes there was no way of talking Siobhan out of her crazy Cupid-like ideas.

"Well, I am spending all my summer with Petunia. My parents are renovating her bedroom into an office since she's going to college next fall, so I have to share mine. And I'm going to have to sleep on the air-mattress, because she suddenly has back problems or something."

"Ooh," said Will sarcastically. "Lucky."

We heard a strange crackling noise coming from the ceiling. We all looked up, waiting for the announcement.

"Er – we will be arriving at King's Cross in…five minutes time. Make sure you have all your belongings and are changed into proper Muggle attire." A crackly woman's voice rang from the PA system at the top of the door.

**Slowly, the train** chugged itself to a stop at the platform. I could see my beaming parents accompanied by Petunia (who looked scared, bored and angry all at the same time), as soon as I stepped off the train. I ran to greet them.

"Daddy!" I cried, throwing myself into his outstretched arms and dropping my trunk noisily. If I was two years younger I probably would've cared what other students might think and held back my happiness a bit, but maturity and a long separation stopped me from my natural teenage instincts. "Lil' Flower!" he said, wrapping his arms around me tightly. "How are you, Dad? And Mum! How are you? How's the early retirement?" I embraced her as well. Petunia made a displeased snorting noise.

"Oh, Petunia," I said icily, pulling away from both of them. "How's the boyfriend? Has he come to his senses and dumped you yet?" She glared at me and I smiled coldly in return. My parents uncomfortably exchanged glances. She opened her mouth to reply, but I cut her off. "I'm just going to say good bye to everyone, give me a second."

"Lily!" called Will, and then she ran to give me a hug. Siobhan and Mary followed. "I'll miss you. Send me an owl."

"You all have my phone number right?" I asked, breaking the group hug. "Call me once in a while, okay? Phones aren't that hard to use, and they're way faster than owls."

The Marauders passed us, talking and laughing. "Oh, right! Reamus, give me a hug!" I kissed him on the cheek, and Potter sent him a glare. I stuck my tongue out at him. "We have to stay in touch, all of you." I glared at Potter again, as if to say, "Only contact me if you have a death wish." I hugged Sirius. It was a bit awkward, as we only started being good friends earlier that year. We had a project in History of Magic together in October and ever since I had been tutoring him. It was a bonding experience. "I'm sorry about Mary, Sirius."

"No problem, Lils." He gave me a quick squeeze and we broke apart.

I gave Peter a hug (I had to bend a bit down, he was so short), shot Potter another frown, and then I joined my parents.

**The ride home** from King's Cross was long and awkward. Petunia and I weren't speaking (there's a surprise), so the cramped backseat of my dad's two door Volkswagen Golf seemed even more cramped, plus, an added bonus for me, my sister and my dad had just had a huge fight in the car on the way to meet me regarding her boyfriend Vernon's presence at our dinner table within the next few nights. It ended with Vernon being allowed to stay one night next Friday. Mum was attempting to keep the peace with idle chit-chat.

"So, Lily, how was this year? Did you learn anything interesting?"

"Not really, just the usual stuff, you know, turning badgers into beavers-"

"Oh, yeah, we would know all about that," Petunia muttered under her breath. I ignored it.

"We spent most of the year studying for our OWLS, Ordinary Wizarding Levels. They're like the Literacy and Maths tests Muggles take in high school, only magical." It wasn't often I got to boast about being a witch, so when I was with my family for those two months, I took full advantage of it. Petunia hated me for it, but she had a whole year round with them; I had to make up for lost time. "The three passing grades are: O, E, and A. Outstanding, Exceeds Expectations, and Acceptable. The three failing grades are P, D, and T. Poor, Dreadful, and Troll. I doubt I really need to worry about those, though. Professors usually insist on at least an E to go on to the NEWT level of the class. In seventh year, we have to take them, Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests. I think I'll be passing most of my classes, except for maybe Transfiguration. If I get an A, I might be able to convince Professor McGonagall to let me in anyway. On the test, I accidentally turned my desk into a rhino, when it was supposed to be a hippo. I think it really affected my grade.

"But next year in Defense Against the Dark Arts, I think we'll be working on Patronusus, or at least I hope so. They're these translucent animals that protect you from these terrible, soul sucking creatures called Dementors., that guard the wizard prison, Azkaban. Patronusus take the shape of the animal that best suits you. I really want to know what animal mine is. And it's supposed to be a really difficult spell, too, so I want to see if I can do it within the first class."

"Well," Mum said, proud and confused at the same time (I often got that reaction with my parents when discussing Hogwarts). "Just don't hurt yourself, honey."

"Hmph," snorted Petunia. "Oh, and just so you know, Vernon's coming over for a bit tonight. Don't mention any of your school stuff or anything. He doesn't know and he doesn't believe in any stupid stuff like that."

Again, I ignored the stupid comment about my schooling. "Vernon? He's real? I always just assumed he was imaginary," I said in mock surprise. She just shook her head and looked away.

"What do you want for dinner tonight, Lil' Flower?" The first night I got back from Hogwarts, I always got my favourite meal. My dad always asked, though we all knew what the answer was.

"Roast chicken, mashed potatoes, turnip, and carrots," I answered automatically. "With gravy."

**A/N: **Not exactly the best way to end a chapter, but certainly satisfactory. Anyway, review!

And also, because I probably wouldn't notice this, but I don't know about you, when the whole sentence is bolded, it means a change in POVs, when three words are bolded, it means change of subject, because I got no idea how to put the star thingies…they disappear on this site. Very annoying, but I deal with it.


	4. Lonesome Tears in My Eyes

**Disclaimer: **Must I? No, no I won't. I refuse. From this day forth, no more disclaimers from me!

**I woke up** **with** **a Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Firework shoved up my nose.** Luckily, I woke up about three seconds before it went off, so I instinctively flung it at Sirius, who had oh-so-subtly done it. He was sitting on my Murphy bed giggling his ass off and panting from the quick run he had to do to avoid getting hit by the sparks.

He had jumped off the bed when he saw it fly out of my hand, but it was too late. Sirius had caught it in his stomach, and then fell roughly on the floor. The firework went off with an explosion of multicolored sparks. I doubled over laughing when I saw the look on his face.

"Not - funny," he wheezed, massaging his belly. Those fireworks didn't hurt when they went off near you, but they did when they were whipped at you with the strength of a talented (and muscley, if I do say so myself) Quidditch player. I grinned.

"What's happened?" Mum said, walking in the room with her regular displeased-but-slightly-amused look on her face. She was carrying a fresh load of laundry under one arm, along with three others floating behind her. All three of them fell when she put her wand-hand on her hip in her usual unhappy way.

"Nothing," I said quickly. "Just a firework." She raised an eyebrow, glancing at Sirius, who was damp and collapsed on the ground from the firework.

"'Just a firework'?" she repeated. "Look at the mess you made. Here –" With a wave of her wand, the confetti was gone, both our beds were made, and Sirius' clothes (sitting messily on the floor beside his suitcase) were neatly folded. In another second, Sirius was dry. "Get changed. Breakfast is almost ready."

"**Here," Mum said,** dropping another couple steaming dishes on the table. "Tuck in. You're skin and bones, Sirius." And he, of course, took advantage of my mum's behavior and nearly emptied the sausage tin and the pancake plate. Like the dog he was, Sirius ate quickly, hardly taking the time to chew.

"Tanks, Mrs. P," he said, his mouth full.

"Hey, leave me some!" I said, taking all the rest before it was too late.

Mum sat down and joined us, daintily placing a lace doily on her lap before spooning herself a small helping of eggs and a piece of bacon. "So, what are you two planning today?" she asked after she finished chewing.

Sirius swallowed with some difficulty. "I'm thinking world domination. James, what do you think?"

"I concur wholeheartedly, Sirius. I say we should start by blowing up Madagascar, kill off the lemurs first. Cause some chaos. The world would be a scary place with no lemurs at our sides. Then we go with the other islands, and then everyone will retreat to the mainland." Mum smiled and shook her head affectionately, taking a bite.

"No, I told you before, Prongs! We start by blowing up the North and South Poles, then work our way slowly in! Cause more panic that way, you know? The world would be much scarier without penguins or polar bears. No one cares about lemurs, except maybe lemurs, and I doubt they really care."

"Sirius has the right idea, Jamesie. Once everyone catches on, they will go to the Equator. That way you know where everybody is. It would make it much easier. Though haphazardly blowing up islands would be much more frightful, we need to get everyone in one place. Then you can carry on with the demands and laws and all the other things the leader of the world wants."

"I still don't know. Maybe we should consult Moony and Wormtail about this. Maybe around twelve, Mum?"

"I don't know, James," she said in that mother tone. "Maybe you should've asked me before inviting them. We could have had an engagement." She pursed her lips and looked at me, all the while scooping out more eggs onto her plate. She began to eat, giving me the same disciplining stare.

"But we don't have an engagement. And Reamus and Pete are looking forward to seeing you again. They miss your great cooking. All they've been talking about is your famous cinnamon buns." Ah, flattery. It always worked with my mum. One good compliment and you could do (almost) whatever you want. Per usual, that scary glare disappeared and a smile broke out on her face.

"I suppose it would be nice to see them again," she sighed, trying not to look pleased. She got up and her dishes slowly floated in the sink. "It's Sirius' turn to wash the dishes. James, you clear the table and dry. When you're done you can help me weed the garden."

We sighed but got to work. It wasn't that hard really, because we could use magic. We were done – with the kitchen completely spotless – in a matter of minutes.

"What took you so long?" asked Mum, peeking in through a window. She was very skilled at cleaning spells; she could clean the entire house in less than 10 minutes. "I'm waist deep in weeds out here. Come and help." She handed us a pair of gloves through the window.

We weren't in the yard very long when I heard a bark. Sirius was in his dog form, jumping around and scampering in the flower beds. My mum laughed. She was the first one (other than the four of us) to know we became Animagi. At first she was a bit apprehensive about it, because we could get in huge trouble for it, but once she realized that it took powerful, complicated magic to do it, she was pretty proud.

"Sirius, we have work to do," she said as sternly as she could with a smile on her face. She turned for my help and saw I changed too. "James!" I joined Sirius in the flower bed, jumping around and being stupid. It usually only once a month when we could change during the school year, so we took full advantage of two months of freedom.

Mum sighed. "Well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." She picked up a rubber ball out of the dog toy basket we kept for Sirius and threw it into the woods at the end of the yard. We both ran for it, pushing each other into trees. I was careful not to use my sharp antlers too much. When the ball was in sight, I managed to knock him down into a thick pile of branches. He barked as he struggled to get up and I laughed; only it was a weird snorting deer sound. I picked up the ball with my mouth and ran back to Mum. Sirius followed, only he was in his clothed human form.

"Moony and Wormy are here!" he called from the bushes. I listened for a minute. I could hear two sets of feet walking up the stairs to the porch. It was so clearly now, why didn't I hear it before? I ran to where I left my clothes (behind a big tree) and changed. Mum went inside to get some cinnamon buns ready.

"**What smells so** **good?" I asked, walking into the kitchen, where my dad was chopping some carrots and potatoes. **

"Cornish hens," he answered, throwing the carrots into a pot. He walked over to the sink and filled the pot with water. "Petunia's bringing her boyfriend to dinner and demanded something special."

"'Her boyfriend'?" I repeated, making a face. I didn't want to meet the kind of guy that was attracted to Petunia. He was probably just as annoying, obtuse, and obstinate as her. "When's he coming?"

"Petunia said five." He checked his watch, turning the stove on. "We have about an hour. Do you want to help?" I nodded and grabbed a large kitchen knife from a drawer. He handed me a turnip, and I began to cut it.

"Hey," Petunia called from the living room. "Vernon just called; he's going to be here in about half an hour." I gave dad a look, and he shrugged, trying not to look as displeased as he obviously felt. "It's a good thing I put the chicken in early, eh Lil Flower?"

**Vernon arrived at** exactly when the clock turned to 4:30. He drove up, parked, stepped out of the car, closed the door, started to walk, fell, opened the door from the pavement, and pulled his pant leg out, stood up, and began to walk up the drive again, then he remembered the bottle of wine in the back seat, so he unlocked the car, pulled the wine out of its paper bag and trotted briskly to our front door. Dad, Mum, and I watched this all from the living room curtains, allowing a few giggles to escape, while Petunia waited by the door, her pink lips pursed.

Vernon was a short and fat bloke with very little neck but triple the amount of chin. I guessed he was about twenty, Petunia's age. His brown hair was slicked back and the attempt at a mustache (a few long hairs under his snub nose) was neatly combed. He was the exact opposite of Petunia in appearance, she being thin, blonde, and mostly neck. I just hoped he was opposite of Petunia in personality, but the hope was in vain.

"Vernie!" she cried, answering the door. "So punctual, as usual. This is Mum, but you can call her Elizabeth–" They shared a brief, awkward looking hug. Vernon handed her the wine, and Mum began to peel off the £6 price sticker with a small blush. I was impressed that he could somehow get wine that cheap. "- and this is my dad, David."

Dad gave him a firm handshake and said, "But you can call me 'sir'." Vernon straightened his plaid tie and turned to me. Petunia looked at me nervously. She cleared her throat.

"This is my sister, Lily. She doesn't talk very much. She's pretty weird, you know, kind of different. She doesn't really get along with normal people. She has to go to a special boarding school in the middle of nowhere with kids that are like her."

"What?" I said, completely awestruck. Was she actually going to try this? Did she really think that I would put up with this for a whole night? Did she really think he would believe such a stupid lie? I mean, it would be obvious I was mentally stable after I said a couple words.

"See?" said Petunia, gesturing to my open mouth and raised eyebrows. "Now, let's go into the living room, shall we?" She grabbed Vernon's hand and led him in the living room. He side-stepped around me while giving me a funny look from the corner of his eye. When I met his gaze, he quickly looked away.

My mum followed them into the living room with an offer of tea while Dad and I went into the kitchen.

"How could she do that?" I cried, picking up the big knife again. Dad quickly gave me another turnip to cut, so I wouldn't do anything drastic. "I mean, it's obvious I'm not like that! And is Vernon really that daft? He actually believed her? How stupid is he?" I stabbed the knife repeatedly into turnip, with a lot of difficulty.

"Lil' Flower, you need to calm down. They can hear you in the living room." He grabbed my shoulders firmly, but without hurting me. "We just need to get through one night, and then we never need to see him again. Got it?"

I sighed. "Fine."

"Good. Now go bring the hors d'oeuvres out."

"**So Vernon, where** do you work?" asked Dad, after a couple minutes of silence at the table. Vernon responded by taking another large helping of mashed potatoes, then covering them with gravy, salt, and butter.

"I sell drills at a firm called Grunnings," he answered after taking a mouthful of carrots. "These carrots are lovely, Elizabeth."

Dad cleared his throat. "Actually, Vernon, I made them. I cooked this whole meal." Obviously, Petunia didn't tell him much about Mum and Dad. Mum couldn't cook. Well, she could, just the simple stuff like macaroni and cheese or scrambled eggs. Dad said that cooking always relaxed him, and he was really good at it. Anyway, Mum was much more outgoing than Dad, so while he cooked for dinner parties, Mum's job was always to entertain the guests.

"Oh, I – er – sorry, sir."

"It's OK, Vernie. You didn't know." Petunia smiled at him, then smiled at everyone else, even me. "Well, I wanted to wait to tell you this until after dinner, but I'm just going to tell to all now." Dad and Mum exchanged worried glances. They, like myself, knew what was coming.

"Vernie and I –" she paused for dramatic effect, "– are getting married!"

"Wow!" said Mum after a moment of stunned silence. "That is – so great, honey." Petunia beamed and grabbed onto Vernon's hand. He shook her off and continued to eat.

"When do you plan to do it?" Mum asked.

"I'm thinking mid June." She looked at me with an evil smile. She picked the time of exams, so it would be impossible for me to go. I didn't really want to go, but still. The thought that went into her plan was a bit hurtful. "Of course, we want to get Eli Champion for a wedding planner, and he is always booked solid. So we'll just have to plan the wedding around his schedule, though I do hope there's an opening soon. I would not be pleased if I have to wait four years to get married."

"How did he propose?" I asked. I really liked these stories, even if I didn't like Vernon and Petunia very much. It showed what kind of person the man (or woman) was, and just how much they cared.

"Oh, it was so romantic. So, about a week ago, Vernon asks me to go on a car ride with him to pick up something for his sister Marge's birthday because he values _my_ opinion. Isn't that so sweet? He actually said that! And so, we go to this jewelers' shop, and we're looking around, and Vernon leads me to this section that's all engagement rings and he goes, 'Go on then woman, pick one." Isn't that the most romantic thing you've ever heard?"

"Umm, yes. It sounds very romantic," I said, not wanting to ruin her good mood. It wasn't not often Petunia's like this around me, I didn't want her mad at me and her whole evening spoiled. "Can I see the ring?"

She held out her hand proudly. The ring was sparkly with a pink, big and round diamond on a silver band, and several small purple diamonds surrounding it. It was so Petunia. "And look!" She took off the ring and handed it to me. Around the edge of the band it said, 'I love you' in fancy letters. Very creative, I thought sarcastically.

"Wow. It's very nice," I said sincerely. It was nice, just not at all my style. I preferred older, simpler, antique rings. Rings that had a story to go with them. "It suits you."

"Yes, I think so too." She beamed, and then scanned the table. All the plates were empty; Vernon's looked as though he had licked it clean. "Dad, I think it's time for dessert. Do we have champagne? I feel very celebratory."

After dessert (we didn't have champagne, but Mum promised to pick some up as soon as possible), we all sat in the living room with some coffee. Vernon, who finally found his voice, did not stop talking. And Petunia just sat there and listened, hardly saying a word accept for the occasional, "Oh, I agree completely, dear." Dad was slowly falling asleep in his armchair, and Mum tried her best to pay attention to Vernon. I sat there, absentmindedly counting the flowers on the curtains and thinking about Hogwarts. What I wouldn't do to be there now, or just see someone from class, a familiar face. I would even be happy to see Potter.

"And this bloke completely runs the stop sign! Doesn't give a damn about other people, just drives where he likes! Of course, I immediately drove up beside him and told him off the best I could. Ruddy prat, I nearly drove into a ditch! And the new company car I was borrowing from a guy at the office was scratched. That git's fault, but I couldn't read that damn license plate, so he's still driving around like a maniac!"

At the point I was starting to nod off, until -

"Oh, and did you hear about that serial killer in Oxford?" Vernon continued. "The lunatics these days!"

I perked up a bit. "A serial killer in Oxford?"

"He's going around, killing whoever he pleases, whenever he pleases, and never gets caught. No one even knows what he looks like!" This was Voldemort. It had to be. The last _Daily Prophet _I read said he was terrorizing both Muggles and Muggle-borns in Oxford, didn't it? And now the Muggles noticed it. This was bad.

"Apparently, he was in Manchester for a while." Also true, according to the _Prophet_. "He's killed about thirty so far." That was true as well, Muggles anyway. "And he's got a big group of followers who help him kill people." Death Eaters, it had to be.

I stood up. "I'm going to go to bed. I'm really tired."

This was really big if the Muggles were noticing it, I thought, walking up the stairs. The Ministry usually tried to keep these things really hushed up, at least from the non-magical world. This Voldemort guy was the real deal, none of us was safe, especially people from my birth. Now I really needed to see someone magical for some comfort.

Severus is just up the street, a voice in my head said. Yes! I forgot I could go there. No. No, I can't. He was going to work for Voldemort; he wanted to kill Muggle-borns, all his friends did, too. Plus, he hated me. That was a horrible idea.

Potter lives pretty close by, just outside of town. And _he_ likes you, said the same voice. Merlin's pants, why do I have such a stupid voice in my head? Why can't it think of better ideas? I'd rather be listening to Vernon for another seven hours than to go to Potter's house in the middle of the night and discuss a serial killer. I'm just going to go to bed, I decided. I'll think of better ideas, much, much better ideas.

I quickly changed into my nightgown and turned off the light. As a deep howl slowly filled the silence of the night, I fell asleep.

**A/N: **How was your first taste of Vernon? Good, bad? Do you think I made him disgusting enough?


	5. Get Back

**Disclaimer:** Yes, I do own nothing. Sigh.

**Falling asleep with** **wet hair was probably one of the worst things I could do, I thought, running a brush through the strands of my slightly damp hair.** If only I could use magic. If I was in Hogwarts, this wouldn't be a problem at all, I could just stick a wand to my head, say a simple incantation, and my hair would be dry and perfectly styled to my preference. Or if I was still friends with Severus, I could easily walk to his house and fix my hair with magic there, provided I avoided contact with his parents.

Ugh, that hurt, thinking of Severus today, of all days. Every September 1st he would come over and get a ride from us (because the Snapes didn't have a car), and we'd spend the whole car ride eating home-made sandwiches and telling jokes while my parents worked on the crossword from the newspaper. It was tradition, and this would be the first time in five years we wouldn't do it.

With a melancholy sigh, I settled for a braid, then changed into a pair of violet and lime plaid shorts and a matching purple tank top with sparkly beading around the neck line. Once my appearance was done, I went over my book and other check lists. I had everything except for_ Hogwarts, A History_. It wasn't actually necessary for the year, but it was one of my favourites. It was very nostalgic; it was the first Wizarding book I ever read.

"Mum!" I cried, running room to room. "Mum?"

"I'm in here, Lily," I heard from the sun room. "What would you like?" She looked up from her newspaper and slid her reading glasses to the end of her nose. She and Petunia were very similar, they had the same curly blonde hair and face structure, but Petunia had dad's height. I had dad's eyes and expressions, with Mum's mouth. My red hair was totally unique in my family. Petunia once tried convinced me I was adopted, and because of this, I believed her.

"Where's my _Hogwarts, A History _book?" She gave me a funny look, that after six years, I knew very well. "It's a hardcover dark blue book with gold writing."

"I haven't seen it in a while. Have you, David?"

He shook his head. "Have you checked the drawer under the window seat?" he suggested. That's where mum put all the odds and ends she found while cleaning the house.

Sure enough, it was there. I placed it in its designated spot in my trunk then closed it. "Okay, I'm ready to go," I announced, dragging my trunk down the stairs and joining them at the table. Dad checked his watch.

"We still have fifteen minutes until we have to leave. Have you eaten yet?" I shook my head.

"I'm not that hungry now. I'll get something from the trolley."

"Here," offered Mum, putting a couple pieces of warm, buttery toast on my plate. "You should eat something now. All they have on the train are sweets and pastries. I'd hate to think that your breakfast will be jelly beans or something."

"Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Jelly Beans. There's bound to be a bacon and egg flavor," I corrected, taking a bite of toast anyway. I picked up a knife and started to spread some marmalade on it. "Is Petunia coming with us?" Not likely, but there was a good enough chance of it to ask.

"We're dropping her off at Vernon's mother's house in London." Per usual, my parents switched their papers; dad always read the sport section first, while mum read the current events, then they switched and read the other half. Then they would work on the crossword together.

I sat in a thoughtful silence for a minute, chewing on my toast. I lifted my dad's arm to check his watch. "We have to go now. Can I go get Petunia?"

"Go ahead. Tell her that we're late though, that's the only way we can get her in the car on time," said Mum.

I ran through the hall and up the stairs. "Petunia! We're twenty minutes late! We need to go now!" I heard some hurried steps and a couple of curses before her bedroom door flew open.

"Really? Twenty minutes?" she asked hurriedly, struggling to put on her other pink heel. "Mrs. Dursley is expecting me at quarter after. What she is going to think if I'm late! What if she tells Vernon not to marry me?" Petunia ran down the stairs with the back of her head all tangled and her eye liner smudged, struggling to move her legs in her tweed pencil skirt. I grabbed her makeup bag and brush from her bathroom before going down stairs. I slowly put on my shoes, and then joined her in the car.

"Here you go," I said, handing her all her stuff.

"Why are you giving me this?" snapped Petunia. "What are you doing with all my make-up? You're not bringing it to your school or something?"

I frowned. "You look like a total mess, and we have an hour car ride. Do the math, Petunia," I answered coldly. I threw the stuff on her lap. She didn't have to be so ungrateful; I didn't have to bring her stuff with me. "Oh, by the way, it's 9: 45."

Dad and Mum got into the car, cheerful and bright. Mum had two crossword books along with the one from the newspaper, accompanied by a pen and whiteout (though they didn't need it). "All right everyone? Got everything you need?"

We nodded, though Petunia looked a bit sullen. "You know, you could have told me the actual time. I'm hardly even ready yet."

"You would have taken ages unless we lied, honey," said Mum sweetly. Petunia made a snorting noise. "I'm looking for a 9 letter word meaning 'unlikely to harm or offend'." Mum started to bite on the end of the pen. "Oh, and it starts with an I. Second and third letters are Ns."

"How about – innocuous?" I asked, racking my brain. Mum checked her crossword.

"Oh, good job Lily! Excellent."

"I would've never gotten that!" added Dad. I blushed, trying to look modest. Petunia sent me a death-glare.

**I got out **of the car and grabbed my trunk**.** My parents got out of the car as well. "Bye Mum," I said, giving her a hug. She kissed me on the cheek.

"Do you have everything you need? Do you have all your books? And you know there's going to be a dance at Christmas; did you remember your dress?"

"Yes, Mum. Don't worry, I have everything I need. I checked four times." She nodded with tears in her forget-me-not eyes. It was amazing how kind those could look on her, and how cold and distant they could look on Petunia.

I hugged my dad. "Bye. I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too, Lil' Flower. Send us a letter every month."

"No, every week," corrected Mum. "And try to get one of the good school owls. I remember the last one went to the bathroom on the new chair in the living room. It was a huge mess."

I laughed. "OK. I'll see you at Christmas. Love you!" I turned and walked to the station. "See you too, Petunia!"

**I heard Lily's** **laugh from across the parking lot.**

"Is that her?" Mum asked, following my gaze. Mum knew all about Lily because of the guys, blabbing to her about all my attempts at asking her out. Like any mother would, she thought that Lily was completely crazy not to fancy me, and that soon in the future she would be head over heels for me.

Lily looked absolutely stunning. The dark purple of her shirt made her creamy skin look like ivory, and her shimmering eyes looked even more green than usual. She must've been happy, her eyes always looked like that when she was happy.

I nodded, bending down to Mum's height. We hugged quickly, and she kissed me on the cheek.

"I'll miss you, James. The house is going to be so empty without you and the Marauders around to keep me company. I'll be all alone."

"Hey, you have friends don't you?" I said with a smile. "Create a book club or something."

I didn't hear her answer; I was caught up with Lily again. Her dad just called her "Lil' Flower". I had a feeling that I'd be using that nickname sometime soon.

"James? Are you in there?" Mum waved her hand in front of my face with some difficulty. She smiled when she saw what I was looking at. She sighed affectionately. "Ah, how cute. I suppose you would like to walk with her to the platform?"

I nodded. "Well, get going then. And I expect an owl every week!"

I grabbed my trunk and ran to catch up with Lily, (ignoring the laugh I heard as she was closing the car door) who was now on Platform 7.

"All right, Lil' Flower!" She turned around smiling, but quickly frowned when she saw it was me.

"What do you want, Potter?" said Lily irritably. I think I just ruined her good mood. Oh well, what can you do? I might as well just annoy her now, as she already hates me.

"I was just saying hi. Is that a crime?" She shook her head and started to walk away.

"So, what's with the nickname?" I asked. Lily blushed.

"What nickname?"

"Lil' Flower," I answered. She flushed a deeper scarlet. You'd think it would clash with her hair pretty badly, but she looked amazing when she did that.

"It's what my dad calls me. It's extremely embarrassing, so only he alone can say it." She stepped closer to me, so we were only about a foot apart. "Got it?"

"You threatening me, Evans? You look very sexy when you threaten. You should do it more often." She sighed angrily and picked up her trunk. She sent another glare at me, and then she ran into the platform. I smiled and went after her.

**With only five** minutes until the train left the station, most of the people on the platform were parents, their kids already on the train. I noticed Sirius' mum and dad standing in the back, trying to avoid all the Muggle mums and dads. Walburga saw me as well, and I waved. She responded with a deep frown, which actually meant she was quite delighted, I think. His dad, Orion, was busy scowling at some parents that were obviously Muggles. I noticed a couple more relatives of Sirius, all of them wearing black clothes and making a disgusted face whenever a Muggles passed.

When I got on the train, rather than sitting with the Marauders, I found the seat with Lily's friends. They liked me, I think. At least they didn't protest when they saw me, they just kind of looked at me. Wilhelmina Dawson, who was also on the Gryffindor Quidditch team with me, started to discuss the France's win on the August 4th match, but one of her other friends interrupted.

"So Jamsie," said Siobhan, batting her eyelashes. She was the one Sirius snogged at the end of the year, and she was as much as a flirt as he was, "how was your summer?"

"Oh, don't try that on James, Siobhan. You have a boyfriend, remember?" Will said, glaring at her.

"Hey, hey. I know I do, and he is perfectly marvelous. I was just asking an innocent question. Anyway, James is strictly Lily's, whether she wants him or not."

I laughed. "I'm glad we're all on the page."

**There was a surprise waiting in store for me when I got back from the Prefects' meeting.** Potter was sitting with Mary, apparently having a nice chat.

I gave Mary a dirty look and sat down next to Potter, because Mary had managed to put her whole trunk in the seat next to her, and had her feet up in the other seat. Mary smiled angelically, today accessorizing with a dark purple. Potter too, smirked and moved a bit closer to me. I frowned.

"Where are Siobhan and Will?" I asked.

"Will went to say hi to her cousin, Siobhan went to snog Will's cousin."

I smiled. "Is he cute?" I felt Potter tense up beside me. Making him jealous was kind of fun.

She shrugged. "Decent I guess, but he's male, so Siobhan has to have him."

"Doesn't she have a boyfriend now?" Siobhan sent me a long letter about halfway into the summer that was just about her first 'serious' boyfriend. Serious meaning that she planned to keep him long enough to know his middle name, something that was nearly unheard of with Siobhan. There were two long pieces of parchment just on his looks, and another one on what we wore for the first week they had known each other. Though she had no idea what Muggle fashion was like, she guessed he was very stylish.

"Yeah, Ian, I think his name is. Old habits die hard, I suppose." She looked at Potter. "How was your summer?"

"Pretty good," he answered. "I didn't really do much, just hung around with the Marauders and played Quidditch. I was just happy to get out of school for a couple months. But I'm glad to be back. How about you, Lily?"

"It was fine. Petunia's engaged to a total pig named Vernon who thinks I'm anti-social and criminally insane. Er, I think that's it. Oh, and Prudence had kittens."

"Prudence?" asked Potter.

"She's my cat, well, one of my cats now," I explained. "I'm allowed to keep two kittens, so I picked a little white one and a gray one with black and white spots. I need to find homes for the other ones though, all five of them."

Will and Siobhan walked in. "Are you interested in a kitten?" asked Mary. They raised their eyebrows, puzzled. Mary always did that kind of thing: scaring people with questions about conversations they weren't in. "Lily's cat had kittens," Mary explained.

Sirius and Reamus appeared in the doorway, both of them looking at me then Potter for a couple times, then smiling suggestively at me. "Prongs, you need to come now. We have to run a plan by you." Potter laughed. "I'll see you around," he said to us.

"Isn't he cute?" Siobhan said after he left. "If he wasn't utterly obsessed with you, I would so go after him."

"And if you didn't have a boyfriend," interjected Will. Siobhan sighed.

"Yeah, that too. And Ian is absolutely perfect. He's so handsome, and smart, and sweet. And he's Irish, so me dad and gram approve; Mum doesn't really care, as long as I'm not having casual sex and snorting cocaine. His only downside is that he so logical. He doesn't believe in witches or unicorns or anything like that. And he's really close-minded."

"Siobhan," I began, standing up to head for the Slug Club compartment, "did you just say that your boyfriend doesn't believe in magic, and doesn't want to have anything to do with magic?"

"Yes." She sighed. "But he's so cute."

"**This is brilliant!** **Abso-bloody-lutely brilliant!" I said, laughing. "How did you find this curse, Moony?"**

"My dad has a big library. I found it in one of the books," answered Reamus. "But how are you going to get to the food? The kitchens?" It was odd to see Reamus so involved in a prank like this one, but we always started the year with a big joke. This will probably the first and last time Moony will take part in a prank we could get in big shit for.

"Yeah," Sirius said. "We just have to go talk to the house elves ask to see what the Snakes are getting. They love following orders, so that should be easy. They show us, James can do the hex without talking, and then we leave and go to the Great Hall like nothing happened. If not, you can just whisper it, right?" I nodded.

"Why are we settling for just the Slytherins?" said Peter, with a funny shine to his eye. "We should get the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs too!"

"We have an alliance with them, that's why. And it would be too suspicious if the Gryffindor table was the only good one. Then it would be obvious it was us." Sirius sprawled out on one side of the seats, looking cat-like and comfortable. Of course, that left us to squeeze together on the other side.

"But everyone is going to assume it was us anyway," Reamus said. "We are the number 1 pranksters in this school."

Padfoot put his arms around us. "Ah, number 1. It feels so good to be at the top." He sighed. "Anyway . . ."

"Hey, I'm going to go see how long we have until Hogwarts," Reamus said, closing the door.

"So, where were you this morning?"asked Wormtail. Sirius and I shared a look and grinned.

"He was with Miss Lily Evans," Sirius answered, grinning ear to ear. "Sitting side by side. She seemed to be warming up to you quite a bit, James. Hey, you might get lucky this year. You know, maybe you'll get her to smile at you or something." He mock gasped. "Maybe – maybe even a handshake!"

I laughed. "C'mon, stop it. She was just happy to see her friends again. It had nothing to do with me. And she was only sitting beside me because Mary wouldn't let Lily sit beside her."

"Mary -?" Sirius was really bad with names.

"Mary MacDonald. She's the one that yelled at you for breaking up with Victoria two months ago on the train after two days of dating. Remember?"

"Is she the Goth one? The one that changes the color of her eyes and nails every day?"

"Yeah. The one that hates you," Peter added.

"She hates me? Really? Who in their right mind could hate me?"

**A/N: **Isn't Sirius just so lovable? So far, I think he's my favourite male character, Siobhan my favourtie female. I love writing for the flirty childish types, I guess.

Who's your favourite character?


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